US6420884B1 - Contact structure formed by photolithography process - Google Patents
Contact structure formed by photolithography process Download PDFInfo
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- US6420884B1 US6420884B1 US09/240,442 US24044299A US6420884B1 US 6420884 B1 US6420884 B1 US 6420884B1 US 24044299 A US24044299 A US 24044299A US 6420884 B1 US6420884 B1 US 6420884B1
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- contact
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L22/00—Testing or measuring during manufacture or treatment; Reliability measurements, i.e. testing of parts without further processing to modify the parts as such; Structural arrangements therefor
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- G—PHYSICS
- G01—MEASURING; TESTING
- G01R—MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES
- G01R3/00—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for the manufacture or maintenance of measuring instruments, e.g. of probe tips
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- G—PHYSICS
- G01—MEASURING; TESTING
- G01R—MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES
- G01R1/00—Details of instruments or arrangements of the types included in groups G01R5/00 - G01R13/00 and G01R31/00
- G01R1/02—General constructional details
- G01R1/06—Measuring leads; Measuring probes
- G01R1/067—Measuring probes
- G01R1/06711—Probe needles; Cantilever beams; "Bump" contacts; Replaceable probe pins
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- G—PHYSICS
- G01—MEASURING; TESTING
- G01R—MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES
- G01R1/00—Details of instruments or arrangements of the types included in groups G01R5/00 - G01R13/00 and G01R31/00
- G01R1/02—General constructional details
- G01R1/06—Measuring leads; Measuring probes
- G01R1/067—Measuring probes
- G01R1/073—Multiple probes
- G01R1/07307—Multiple probes with individual probe elements, e.g. needles, cantilever beams or bump contacts, fixed in relation to each other, e.g. bed of nails fixture or probe card
- G01R1/07342—Multiple probes with individual probe elements, e.g. needles, cantilever beams or bump contacts, fixed in relation to each other, e.g. bed of nails fixture or probe card the body of the probe being at an angle other than perpendicular to test object, e.g. probe card
Definitions
- This invention relates to contact structures to establish electrical contact with contact targets such as pads, electrode, or leads of electronic circuits or devices, and more particularly, to contact structures to be used such as in a probe card to test semiconductor wafers, packaged semiconductor devices, IC chips, printed circuit boards and the like, with an higher speed, frequency range, density and quality.
- the contact structure of the present invention is not limited to the application of testing, including burn-in testing, of semiconductor wafers and die, but is inclusive of testing and burn-in of packaged semiconductor devices, printed circuit boards and the like. However, for the convenience of explanation, the present invention is described mainly with reference to the semiconductor wafer testing.
- a semiconductor test system such as an IC tester is usually accompanied with a substrate handler, 400 such as an automatic wafer prober, to automatically test the semiconductor wafer.
- a semiconductor test system has a test head 600 which is ordinarily in a separate housing and is electrically connected to the main frame of the test system with a bundle of cables.
- the test head and the substrate handler are mechanically and electrically interacted with one another by means of a manipulator 500 driven by a motor 510 and the semiconductor wafers to be tested are automatically provided to a test position of the test head by the substrate handler.
- the semiconductor wafer to be tested is provided with test signals generated by the semiconductor test system.
- the resultant output signals from IC circuits on the semiconductor wafer under test are transmitted to the semiconductor test system wherein they are compared with expected data to determine whether the IC circuits on the semiconductor wafer function correctly.
- the test head and the substrate handler are connected with an interface component 140 consisting of a performance board 120 which is a printed circuit board having electric circuit connections unique to a test head's electrical footprint, coaxial cables, pogo-pins and connectors.
- the test head 600 includes a large number of printed circuit boards 150 which correspond to the number of test channels or test pins. Each of the printed circuit boards has a connector 160 to receive a corresponding contact terminal 121 of the performance board 620 .
- a “frog” ring 130 is mounted on the performance board 620 to accurately determine the contact position relative to the substrate handler 400 .
- the frog ring 130 has a large number of contact pins 141 , such as ZIF connectors or pogo-pins, connected to contact terminals 121 , through coaxial cables 124 .
- FIG. 2 shows, in more detail, a structure of the substrate handler (wafer prober) 400 , the test head 600 and the interface component 140 when testing a semiconductor wafer.
- the test head 600 is placed over the substrate handler 400 and mechanically and electrically connected to the substrate handler through the interface component 140 .
- a semiconductor wafer 300 to be tested is mounted on a chuck 180 .
- a probe card 170 is provided above the semiconductor wafer 300 to be tested.
- the probe card 170 has a large number of probe contactors or contact structures (such as cantilevers or needles) 190 to contact with circuit terminals or contact targets in the IC circuit of the semiconductor wafer 300 under test.
- Electrical terminals or contact receptacles of the probe card 170 are electrically connected to the contact pins 141 provided on the frog ring 130 .
- the contact pins 141 are also connected to the contact terminals 121 of the performance board 620 with coaxial cables 124 where each contact terminal 121 is connected to the printed circuit board 150 of the test head 600 .
- the printed circuit boards 150 are connected to the semiconductor test system through the cable 110 having several hundreds of inner cables.
- the probe contactors 190 contact the surface of the semiconductor wafer 300 on the chuck 180 to apply test signals to the semiconductor wafer 300 and receive the resultant output signals from the wafer 300 .
- the resultant output signals from the semiconductor wafer 300 under test are compared with the expected data generated by the semiconductor test system to determine whether the semiconductor wafer 300 performs properly.
- FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the probe card 170 of FIG. 2 .
- the probe card 170 has an epoxy ring on which a plurality of probe contactors 190 called needles or cantilevers are mounted.
- the tips of the cantilevers 190 contact the pads or bumps on the wafer 300 .
- the ends of the cantilevers 190 are connected to wires 194 which are further connected to transmission lines (not shown) formed in the probe card 170 .
- the transmission lines are connected to a plurality of electrodes 197 which contact the pogo pins 141 of FIG. 2 .
- the probe card 170 is structured by a multi-layer of polyimide substrates having ground planes, power planes, signal transmission lines on many layers.
- each of the signal transmission lines is designed to have a characteristic impedance such as 50 ohms by balancing the distributed parameters, i.e., dielectric constant of the polyimide, inductances, and capacitances of the signal within the probe card 170 .
- the signal lines are impedance matched lines to achieve a high frequency transmission bandwidth to the wafer 300 providing current during steady state and high current peaks generated by the device's outputs switching.
- capacitors 193 and 195 are provided on the probe card between the power and ground planes.
- FIG. 4 An equivalent circuit of the probe card 170 is shown in FIG. 4 to explain the limitation of bandwidth in the conventional probe card technology.
- the signal transmission line on the probe card 170 extends from the electrode 197 , the strip (impedance matched) line 196 , the wire 194 and the needle (cantilever) 190 . Since the wire 194 and needle 190 are not impedance matched, these portions function as an inductor L in the high frequency band as shown in FIG. 4 C. Because of the overall length of the wire 194 and needle 190 is around 20-30mm, the significant frequency limitation is resulted in testing a high frequency performance of a device under test.
- the capacitors 193 and 195 are provided between the power line and the ground line to secure a proper performance of the device under test by filtering out the noise or surge pulses on the power lines.
- the capacitors 193 have a relatively large value such as 10 ⁇ F and can be disconnected from the power lines by switches if necessary.
- the capacitors 195 have a relatively small capacitance value such as 0.01 ⁇ F and fixedly connected close to the DUT. These capacitors serve the function as high frequency decoupling on the power lines.
- the most widely used probe contactors as noted above are limited to the frequency bandwidth of approximately 200 MHz which is insufficient to test recent semiconductor devices. It is considered, in the industry, that the frequency bandwidth be of at least that equal to the tester's capability which is currently on the order of 1 GHz or higher, will be necessary in the near future. Further, it is desired in the industry that a probe card is capable of handling a large number of semiconductor devices, especially memories, such as 32 or more, in parallel (parallel test) to increase test throughput.
- a relatively new type of probe card having membrane contactors is expected to have a sufficiently high bandwidth because it can incorporate impedance matched transmission lines to the tips of the contactors.
- membrane contactors have a disadvantage in that they are deformed by the temperature change to a degree that the contact performance is no longer available.
- Another disadvantage of the membrane contactors resides in that only limited number of contactors can be fabricated on the membrane because of the difficulty of providing spring forces to the contactors.
- One last disadvantage inherent in the technology is the lack of individual compliance in the contactors relative to one another. If the contacting surface presents anomalies in topology from one point to another (which become more pronounced over a larger area), this variability cannot be accounted for on an individual basis from one contactor to another. Therefore, membrane contactors are not suitable for testing a large number of devices in parallel.
- the probe card and probe contactors such as shown in FIG. 3 are manually made, resulting in inconsistent quality.
- Such inconsistent quality includes fluctuations of size, frequency bandwidth, contact force and resistance, etc.
- another factor making the contact performance unreliable is that the probe contactors and the semiconductor wafer under test have different temperature expansion ratios. Thus, under the varying temperature, the contact positions therebetween vary which adversely affects the contact force, contact resistance and bandwidth.
- a contact structure for testing a semiconductor wafer, a packaged LSI or a printed circuit board (device under test) is formed through a photolithography technology well established in the semiconductor production process and mounted on a surface of the substrate.
- the contact structure of the present invention has a beam like shape formed through a photolithography technology.
- the contact structure is formed of a silicon base having an inclined support portion created through an anisotropic etching process, an insulation layer formed on the silicon base and projected from the inclined support, and a conductive layer made of conductive material formed on the insulation layer so that a beam portion is created by the insulation layer and the conductive layer, where wherein the beam portion exhibits a spring force in a transversal direction of the beam portion to establish a contact force when the tip of the beam portion pressed against a contact target.
- the contact structure includes a plurality of contact beams each of which exhibits a spring force in a transversal direction thereof to establish a contact force when the tip of the contact beam pressed against a contact target, where each of the contact beam is comprised of a silicon base having an inclined support portion created through an anisotropic etching process, an insulation layer for electrically insulating the beam portion from one another, and a conductive layer made of conductive material formed on the insulation layer so that a beam portion is created by the insulation layer and the conductive layer, a contact substrate for mounting the plurality of contact beams wherein the contact substrate have grooves for receiving the silicon base therein in a manner to fix the contact beams in a diagonal direction, and a plurality of contact traces provided on a surface of the contact base and respectively connected to the contact beams to establish signal paths toward an electrical component external to the contact substrate.
- a further aspect of the present invention is contact structure mounting a large number of contact beams formed through the photolithography process.
- the contact structure includes a plurality of contact beams each of which exhibits a spring force in a transversal direction thereof to establish a contact force when the tip of the contact beam pressed against a contact target, where each of the contact beam is comprised of a silicon base having two inclined portions at least one of which is created through an anisotropic etching process, an insulation layer for electrically insulating the beam portion from one another, and a conductive layer made of conductive material formed on the insulation layer so that a beam portion is created by the insulation layer and the conductive layer, a contact substrate for mounting the plurality of contact beams wherein the contact substrate have a planar surface for mounting thereon the silicon bases by means of an adhesive to fix the contact beams in a diagonal direction, and a plurality of contact traces provided on a surface of the contact base and respectively connected to the contact beams to establish signal paths toward an electrical component external to the contact substrate.
- a further aspect of the present invention is a process for producing the contact structure.
- the method of producing the contact structure is comprised of the steps of providing a silicon substrate cut in a (100) crystal plane, applying a first photolithography process on an upper surface of the silicon substrate for forming a boron doped layer on a surface of the silicon substrate, forming a first insulation layer on the boron doped layer, forming a second insulation layer on a bottom surface of the silicon substrate, applying a second photolithography process on the second insulation layer for forming an etch window in the second insulation layer, performing an anisotropic etch through the etch window; and applying a third photolithography process on the first insulation layer for forming a conductive layer, where each of the photolithography processes includes steps of photoresist coating, masking, exposure, and photoresist stripping.
- the contactor has a very high frequency bandwidth to meet the test requirements in the next generation semiconductor technology. Since the probe contactor is formed through a modern miniaturization technology used in the semiconductor production process, a large number of contactors can be aligned in a small space which is suitable for testing a large number of semiconductor devices at the same time.
- the probe contactors Since the large number of probe contactors are produced at the same time on the substrate with the use of the microfabrication technology without involving manual handling, it is possible to achieve consistent quality, high reliability and long life in the contact performance. Further, because the probe contactors can be fabricated on the same substrate material as that of the device under test, it is possible to compensate the temperature expansion coefficient of the device under test, which is able to avoid positional errors.
- FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a structural relationship between a substrate handler and a semiconductor test system having a test head.
- FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of detailed structure for connecting the test head of the semiconductor test system to the substrate handler.
- FIG. 3 is a bottom view showing an example of the probe card having an epoxy ring for mounting a plurality of cantilevers as probe contactors.
- FIGS. 4A-4E are circuit diagrams showing equivalent circuits of the probe card of FIG. 3 .
- FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view showing a contact substrate mounting the contact structures of the present invention produced through a photolithography process and a semiconductor wafer having contact targets.
- FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a bottom view of the contact substrate of FIG. 5 having the contact structures of the present invention.
- FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a more detailed cross sectional view of one of the contact structures of the present invention.
- FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a top view of the contact structures of FIG. 7 .
- FIGS. 9 A and 9 C- 9 J are schematic cross sectional views showing a process for producing the contact structures of the present invention.
- FIG. 9B is a top view of the substrate corresponding to the cross sectional view of FIG. 9 A.
- FIGS. 10A-10C are schematic cross sectional views showing another process for producing the contact structures of the present invention.
- FIG. 11 is a top view of a silicon wafer for producing a large number of contact structures of the resent invention at the same time.
- FIGS. 12A and 12B are schematic cross sectional views showing examples of method for assembling the contact structures of the present invention in the contact substrate.
- FIGS. 13A-13D are schematic cross sectional views showing a further example of process for producing the contact structures of the present invention.
- FIG. 14 is a cross sectional view showing a contact substrate mounting the contact structures produced through a photolithography process of FIGS. 13A-13D and a semiconductor wafer having contact targets.
- FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing a bottom view of the contact substrate of FIG. 14 having the contact structures of the present invention.
- FIG. 5 shows an example of contactor structures 30 of the present invention produced through a photolithography process and mounted on a contact substrate 20 .
- the contact substrate 20 is so positioned over contact targets such as a semiconductor wafer 100 to be tested that the contact structures 30 establish electric contact with the semiconductor wafer 100 when pressed with each other.
- contact targets such as a semiconductor wafer 100 to be tested that the contact structures 30 establish electric contact with the semiconductor wafer 100 when pressed with each other.
- FIG. 5 shows only two contact structures 30 are shown in FIG. 5, a large number of contactor structures 30 are aligned on the substrate 20 in an actual semiconductor wafer test.
- Such a large number of contact structures are produced through the same photolithography process on a silicon substrate 40 as will be explained later.
- the contactors 30 contact with corresponding contact targets (electrodes) 120 on the wafer 100 .
- the pitch between the pads 120 may be as small as 50 ⁇ m or less wherein the contact structures 30 can easily be aligned in the same pitch since they are made through the same semiconductor production process as the wafer 300 are made.
- the contact structures 30 on the substrate 20 can be directly mounted on a probe card such as shown in FIG. 3, or molded in a package, such as a traditional IC package having leads, so that the package is mounted on a probe card, or interconnected with other substrate. Since the contact structures 30 can be fabricated in a very small size, an operable frequency range of a probe card mounting the contact structures of the present invention can be easily increased to 2 GHz or higher. Because of the small size, the number of contactors on a probe card can be increased to, for example 2,000, which is able to test as many as 32 or more memory devices in parallel at the same time.
- the contact structures 30 of the present invention are formed on the substrate 20 , which is typically a silicon substrate, environmental changes such as a temperature expansion ratio of the silicon substrate are the same as those of the semiconductor wafer 100 under test. Therefore, the accurate positioning between the contact structures 30 and the contact targets 120 can be maintained throughout the test.
- the contact structure 30 has a conductive layer 35 in a finger (beam) like shape.
- the contact structures also has a base 40 which is attached to the substrate 20 .
- An interconnect trace 24 is connected to the conductive layer 35 at the bottom of the substrate 20 .
- Such a connection between the interconnect trace 24 and the conductive layer 35 is made, for example, through a solder ball.
- the substrate 20 further includes a via hole 23 and an electrode 22 .
- the electrode 22 is to interconnect the contact substrate 20 to an external structure such as a probe card or IC package through a wire or lead.
- the interconnect trace 24 , the via hole 23 and the electrode 22 also function to fan-out the small pitch of the contact structures 30 to a larger pitch to fit to the probe card or IC package.
- the end of the conductive layer 35 produces a sufficient contact force when the semiconductor wafer 100 is pressed against the substrate 20 .
- the end of the conductive layer 35 is preferably sharpened to achieve a scrubbing effect when pressed against the contact target 120 achieving penetration through a metal-oxide layer. For example, if the target 120 on the wafer 100 has aluminum oxide on its surface, the scrubbing effect is necessary to establish the electric contact with low contact resistance.
- the spring force derived from the beam like shape of the contact structure 30 provides an appropriate contact force against the contact target 120 .
- the elasticity produced by the spring force of the contact structure 30 also functions to compensate the differences in size or the fluctuation of flatness involved in the substrate 20 , the contact target 120 and the wafer 100 , as well as the contact structures 30 .
- An example of material of the conductive layer 35 includes nickel, aluminum, copper, nickel palladium, rhodium, nickel gold, iridium or several other depositable materials.
- An example of size of the contact structure 30 intended for a probe-test application may be 100-500 ⁇ m in overall height, 100-600 ⁇ m in horizontal length, and about 30-50 ⁇ m in width for the pitch of 50 ⁇ m or more between contact targets 120 .
- FIG. 6 is a bottom view of the contact substrate 20 of FIG. 5 having a plurality of contact structures 30 .
- a larger number of contact structures such as several hundreds of them, will be aligned in the manner shown in FIG. 6 .
- Each set of the interconnect trace 24 , the via hole 23 and the electrode 22 establishes a signal path from the tip of the conductive layer 35 as well as functions to fan-out the small pitch of the contact structures 30 to a larger pitch to fit to the probe card or IC package.
- FIGS. 7 and 8 show a more detailed view of the contact structure 30 of the present invention.
- the contact structure 30 includes a silicon base 40 , a boron doped layer 48 , a insulation layer 52 , and a conductive layer 35 .
- the silicon base 40 has an angled support 62 to support the finger like portion of the contact structure 30 . As will be explained later, the angled support 62 is produced through an anisotropic etching process in a specific crystalline.
- the boron doped layer 48 is to function as an etch stopper during the production process.
- the insulation layer 52 is typically a silicon dioxide layer to electrically insulate the conductive layer 35 from the other parts of the contact structure 30 .
- FIG. 8 is a top view of the contact structure of FIG. 7, wherein a plurality of conductive layers 35 are shown in a finger like shape. Between the two adjacent conductive layers 35 , there is a free space 36 so that each finger (beam) portion of the contact structure is independent from the other and is moveable separately from the other. Such free spaces 36 are created through the etching process noted above by etching away the predetermined portions of the silicon substrate without the boron doped layer as will be further explained later.
- FIGS. 9A-9J show an example of process for producing the contact structures 30 of the present invention through the photolithography technology.
- a large number of pairs of contact structures are formed on a silicon substrate, and each pair of the contact structures are separated from each other in a later stage.
- a photo resist layer 42 is provided on a silicon substrate 40 .
- the photo resist layer 42 is to create a boron doped layer on the silicon substrate 40 .
- a photo mask is aligned over the silicon substrate so that the photo resist layer 42 be exposed with ultraviolet light.
- FIG. 9B which is a top view of FIG. 9A is created in which specified portions 43 show cured photo resist resulted from the exposure to the ultraviolet light.
- the unexposed part of the resist 42 can be dissolved and washed away, leaving the specified portions 43 on the silicon substrate 40 .
- An etch stop agent such as boron is doped in the upper surface of the silicon substrate having the cured photo resist at the specified portions 43 . Because of the photo resist, the specified portions 43 of the silicon substrate 40 are not doped with the boron. Thus, after removing the photo resist in the portions 43 , a boron doped layer 48 is created as shown in FIG. 9C in which the boron is doped in a thin layer over the silicon substrate except in the specified areas 43 . The silicon substrate in the specified areas 43 without the boron will be etched away in an anisotropic etching process as will be described later.
- silicon dioxide (Sio 2 ) layers 52 and 54 are produced on the upper surface and bottom surface of the silicon substrate 40 .
- the silicon dioxide layer 52 is to function as an insulator when a conductive layer 35 (such as shown in FIG. 7) is created. Other dielectric material can also be feasible for this layer.
- the silicon dioxide layer 54 at the bottom surface of the silicon substrate 40 is to function as an etching mask as in FIG. 9 E.
- the silicon dioxide layer 54 is removed through a photolithography process to define an etching area 56 . In this example, the etching area 56 is formed at about the center of the bottom of the silicon substrate 40 .
- an anisotropic etching process is performed for the silicon substrate 40 .
- a V-shaped groove is formed through the anisotropic etching when etchant is provided at the etching area 56 .
- the angle of the groove is 54.7° relative to the bottom surface of the silicon substrate 40 .
- the groove angle is the same as a (111) crystal plane of the silicon substrate 40 .
- etchant for this purpose include EDP (ethylene diamine pyrocatechol), TMAH (tetra methyl ammonium hydroxide) and KOH (potassium hydroxide).
- the angled support 62 is created whose size is dependent upon the size of the etching area (etch window) 56 and a time length of the etching process. Because of the boron doped layer 48 , the etch is stopped at the boron layer 48 while the specified areas 43 without boron are etched away, resulting in the spaces 36 of FIG. 8 when the beam portions are cut into half as will be described later. Because of the spaces 36 , each of the contact structures 30 are physically separated from one another.
- a plating seed layer (not shown) is formed on the silicon dioxide layer 52 .
- a further photolithography process is performed on the silicon substrate to create a photo resist pattern for forming conductive layer 35 .
- the cured photo resist 58 resulted from this photolithography process is shown in FIG. 9G.
- a plating process is carried out to produce the conductive layer 35 as shown in FIG. 9 H.
- An example of material in the conductive layer 35 includes nickel, aluminum and copper.
- a variety of deposition techniques can be used in producing the conductive layer 35 including vacuum evaporation, cathode sputtering, vapor-phase deposition.
- the photo resist 58 is removed in FIG. 9 I.
- the silicon substrate 40 is cut into half at the center thereof (beam portions) as shown in FIG. 9 J. Unwanted portions at both ends of the silicon substrate 40 may also be cut out.
- FIGS. 10A-10C show another example of process for producing the contact structures 30 of the present invention through the photolithography technology. Unlike the example of FIGS. 9A-9J in which a large number of pairs of contact structures are integrally created and separated from one another at the last stage, a large number of separate contact structures are formed at the edge of the silicon substrate.
- a boron doped layer 148 is formed on the silicon substrate 140 wherein there defined specified (etch-out) areas 143 which are not doped with boron.
- a dielectric layer 152 such as silicon dioxide SiO 2 is provided on the boron doped layer 148 to establish as an insulator.
- a silicon dioxide SiO 2 layer 154 is also provided at the bottom of the silicon substrate 140 as an etch mask.
- An etch window 156 is defined by a photolithography process (not shown) for allowing an anisotropic etch therethrough as noted above.
- the anisotropic etch process is performed on the silicon substrate 140 which creates an angled portion along with the (111) crystal plane of the silicon substrate 140 as in FIG. 10 B. As noted above, this angle is 54.7° with respect to the bottom surface of silicon substrate 140 . Because the specified portions 143 are not doped with boron, the silicon substrate in these areas are etched away, leaving the finger (comb) like structure in a plan view at the right end of FIG. 10 B.
- FIG. 10C a further photolithography process is performed to form a photo resist layer (not shown) and a conductive layer 135 is created through a plating process.
- the resultant contact structures 30 are cut into an appropriate shape such as shown in FIG. 7 .
- FIGS. 11A-11C are schematic diagrams showing an example of process for producing a large number of contact structures on a silicon substrate 40 .
- the photolithography process shown in FIGS. 9A-9J creates a large number of contact structures shown by conductive beams 35 on the silicon substrate 40 in FIG. 11 A.
- the silicon substrate 40 is cut out in a dicing or etching process at lines A—A, B—B and C—C, for example.
- the resultant contact structures shown in FIG. 11B may further be cut into smaller units, if necessary, at D—D and E—E lines if the number of conductive beams 35 need to be small in an intended application as shown in FIG. 11 C.
- FIGS. 12A and 12B are schematic cross sectional views showing examples of method for assembling the contact structures of the present invention in the contact substrate.
- An example of material of the contact substrate 20 includes silicon and ceramic.
- grooves 27 or 27 for mounting the contact structures 30 may be formed through an anisotropic etching or other etching processes.
- the contact substrate is made of silicon, it has an advantage in that the temperature expansion of the contact substrate can compensate a semiconductor wafer under test.
- a ceramic substrate has a mechanical strength and physical stability superior to the silicon substrate.
- the silicon base 40 of the contact structure is inserted in the grooves provided on the contact substrate 20 and fixed therein with use of, for example, an adhesive or epoxy resin.
- FIGS. 13A-13D are schematic cross sectional views showing a further example of process for producing the contact structures of the present invention.
- a contact structure shown in FIG. 13D is produced which has two inclined portions 262 1 and 262 2 on the base of the contact structure.
- the inclined portion 262 2 is used to mount the contact structure on a planar surface of a contact base as shown in FIG. 14 as will be explained later.
- a boron doped layer 248 is formed on the silicon substrate 240 wherein specific (etch-out) areas 243 are defined which are not doped with boron.
- a dielectric layer 252 such as silicon dioxide SiO 2 is provided on the boron doped layer 248 to establish as an insulation layer.
- a silicon dioxide SiO 2 layer 254 is also provided at the bottom of the silicon substrate 140 as an etch mask.
- An etch windows 256 are defined by a photolithography process (not shown) for allowing an anisotropic etch therethrough as noted above.
- the anisotropic etch process is performed on the silicon substrate 240 which creates angled portions 262 1 and 262 2 along with the (111) crystal plane of the silicon substrate 240 as in FIG. 13 B. As noted above, this angle is 54.7° with respect to the bottom surface of silicon substrate 240 .
- the inclined portion 262 2 can be made by dicing the silicon substrate 240 rather than the etching process noted above. Because the specified portions 243 are not doped with boron, the silicon substrate in these areas are etched away, leaving the finger (comb) like structure in a plan view at the right end of FIG. 13 B.
- FIG. 13C a further photolithography process is performed to form a photo resist layer (not shown) so that a conductive layer 235 is created through a plating process.
- the resultant contact structures 30 are cut into an appropriate shape such as shown in FIG. 13 D.
- FIG. 14 is a cross sectional view showing a contact substrate mounting the contact structures produced through a photolithography process of FIGS. 13A-13D and a semiconductor wafer having contact targets.
- the contact structures 30 in this example are mounted on a flat surface of the contact substrate 20 .
- the inclined portion 262 2 on the silicon substrate 240 shown in FIG. 13D meets the flat surface of the contact substrate 20 .
- the contact structures 30 are fixed to the planar surface at the bottom of the contact substrate 20 with adhesives 300 such as high temperature adhesives.
- an interconnect trace 24 is connected to the conductive layer 235 at the bottom of the substrate 20 .
- Such a connection between the interconnect trace 24 and the conductive layer 235 is made, for example, through a solder ball 28 .
- the substrate 20 further includes a via hole 23 and an electrode 22 .
- the electrode 22 is to interconnect the contact substrate 20 to an external structure such as a probe card or IC package through a wire or lead.
- the interconnect trace 24 , the via hole 23 and the electrode 22 also function to fan-out the small pitch of the contact structures 30 to a larger pitch to fit to the probe card or IC package.
- FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing a bottom view of the contact substrate of FIG. 14 having the contact structures of the present invention.
- the adhesives 300 are used to bond the contact structures 30 to the contact base 20 at both sides of the set of the contact structures 30 as well as the corners shown in FIG. 14 .
- the contact structure has a very high frequency bandwidth to meet the test requirements of next generation semiconductor technology. Since the probe contactor is formed through a modern miniaturization technology used in the semiconductor production process, a large number of contactors can be aligned in a small space which is suitable for testing a large number of semiconductor devices at the same time.
- the contact structures Since the large number of contact structures are produced at the same time on the substrate with the use of the microfabrication technology without involving manual handling, it is possible to achieve consistent quality, high reliability and long life in the contact performance. Further, because the contact structures can be fabricated on the same substrate material as that of the device under test, it is possible to compensate the temperature expansion coefficient of the device under test, which is able to avoid positional errors.
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- Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
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Priority Applications (10)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US09/240,442 US6420884B1 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 1999-01-29 | Contact structure formed by photolithography process |
SG200000182A SG84560A1 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2000-01-12 | Contact structure formed by photolithography process |
JP2000010297A JP3343540B2 (ja) | 1999-01-29 | 2000-01-17 | フォトリソグラフィで形成するコンタクトストラクチャ |
DE10003282A DE10003282B4 (de) | 1999-01-29 | 2000-01-26 | Kontaktstruktur |
TW089101415A TW534998B (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2000-01-27 | Contact structure formed by photolithography process and method for producing the same |
KR10-2000-0004199A KR100472580B1 (ko) | 1999-01-29 | 2000-01-28 | 포토리소그래피 공정에 의해 형성된 콘택트 구조 |
US09/688,027 US6436802B1 (en) | 1998-11-30 | 2000-10-14 | Method of producing contact structure |
US10/058,951 US6466043B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-01-28 | Contact structure for electrical communication with contact targets |
US10/058,483 US6472890B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-01-28 | Method for producing a contact structure |
US10/078,603 US6535003B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-02-19 | Contact structure having silicon finger contactor |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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US09/240,442 US6420884B1 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 1999-01-29 | Contact structure formed by photolithography process |
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US09/368,003 Continuation-In-Part US6255727B1 (en) | 1998-11-30 | 1999-08-03 | Contact structure formed by microfabrication process |
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US09/201,299 Continuation-In-Part US6297164B1 (en) | 1998-11-30 | 1998-11-30 | Method for producing contact structures |
US10/058,483 Continuation US6472890B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-01-28 | Method for producing a contact structure |
US10/058,951 Continuation US6466043B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-01-28 | Contact structure for electrical communication with contact targets |
US10/078,603 Continuation-In-Part US6535003B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-02-19 | Contact structure having silicon finger contactor |
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US6420884B1 true US6420884B1 (en) | 2002-07-16 |
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US10/058,951 Expired - Fee Related US6466043B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-01-28 | Contact structure for electrical communication with contact targets |
US10/058,483 Expired - Fee Related US6472890B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-01-28 | Method for producing a contact structure |
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US10/058,951 Expired - Fee Related US6466043B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-01-28 | Contact structure for electrical communication with contact targets |
US10/058,483 Expired - Fee Related US6472890B2 (en) | 1999-01-29 | 2002-01-28 | Method for producing a contact structure |
Country Status (6)
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US (3) | US6420884B1 (de) |
JP (1) | JP3343540B2 (de) |
KR (1) | KR100472580B1 (de) |
DE (1) | DE10003282B4 (de) |
SG (1) | SG84560A1 (de) |
TW (1) | TW534998B (de) |
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US6590406B2 (en) * | 2000-10-16 | 2003-07-08 | Soshotech Co., Ltd | Apparatus for inspecting display board or circuit board |
US20040253846A1 (en) * | 2003-06-11 | 2004-12-16 | Epic Technology Inc. | Land grid array connector including heterogeneous contact elements |
US20040253875A1 (en) * | 2003-06-11 | 2004-12-16 | Epic Technology Inc. | Circuitized connector for land grid array |
US20040252477A1 (en) * | 2003-06-11 | 2004-12-16 | Brown Dirk D. | Contact grid array formed on a printed circuit board |
US20040253845A1 (en) * | 2003-06-11 | 2004-12-16 | Brown Dirk D. | Remountable connector for land grid array packages |
EP1530056A2 (de) * | 2003-11-05 | 2005-05-11 | Solid State Measurements, Inc. | Verfahren zur Prüfung einer Silicium-auf-Isolator Halbleiterscheibe |
US20050120553A1 (en) * | 2003-12-08 | 2005-06-09 | Brown Dirk D. | Method for forming MEMS grid array connector |
US20050208786A1 (en) * | 2004-03-19 | 2005-09-22 | Epic Technology Inc. | Interposer and method for making same |
US20050208787A1 (en) * | 2004-03-19 | 2005-09-22 | Epic Technology Inc. | Interposer with compliant pins |
US20050227510A1 (en) * | 2004-04-09 | 2005-10-13 | Brown Dirk D | Small array contact with precision working range |
US20060000642A1 (en) * | 2004-07-01 | 2006-01-05 | Epic Technology Inc. | Interposer with compliant pins |
US7056131B1 (en) | 2003-04-11 | 2006-06-06 | Neoconix, Inc. | Contact grid array system |
US20060132151A1 (en) * | 2004-12-20 | 2006-06-22 | Chih-Yuan Wang | Contact-type film probe |
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US20070013390A1 (en) * | 2005-06-27 | 2007-01-18 | Advantest Corporation | Contactor, contact structure provided with contactors, probe card, test apparatus, method of production of contact structure, and production apparatus of contact structure |
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US20070256299A1 (en) * | 2006-02-22 | 2007-11-08 | Dov Chartarifsky | Approach for fabricating cantilever probes |
US20080048688A1 (en) * | 2000-03-17 | 2008-02-28 | Formfactor, Inc. | Methods for planarizing a semiconductor contactor |
US20080246501A1 (en) * | 2005-03-01 | 2008-10-09 | Williams Scott R | Probe Card With Stacked Substrate |
US20090291573A1 (en) * | 1993-11-16 | 2009-11-26 | Formfactor, Inc. | Probe card assembly and kit, and methods of making same |
US7645147B2 (en) | 2004-03-19 | 2010-01-12 | Neoconix, Inc. | Electrical connector having a flexible sheet and one or more conductive connectors |
US20100102838A1 (en) * | 2007-04-03 | 2010-04-29 | Advantest Corporation | Contactor and method of production of contactor |
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WO2009013809A1 (ja) | 2007-07-24 | 2009-01-29 | Advantest Corporation | コンタクタ、プローブカード及びコンタクタの実装方法。 |
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US7090503B2 (en) | 2004-03-19 | 2006-08-15 | Neoconix, Inc. | Interposer with compliant pins |
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US7645147B2 (en) | 2004-03-19 | 2010-01-12 | Neoconix, Inc. | Electrical connector having a flexible sheet and one or more conductive connectors |
US20050208787A1 (en) * | 2004-03-19 | 2005-09-22 | Epic Technology Inc. | Interposer with compliant pins |
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US20060132151A1 (en) * | 2004-12-20 | 2006-06-22 | Chih-Yuan Wang | Contact-type film probe |
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US20070013390A1 (en) * | 2005-06-27 | 2007-01-18 | Advantest Corporation | Contactor, contact structure provided with contactors, probe card, test apparatus, method of production of contact structure, and production apparatus of contact structure |
US7764152B2 (en) | 2005-06-27 | 2010-07-27 | Advantest Corporation | Contactor, contact structure provided with contactors, probe card, test apparatus, method of production of contact structure, and production apparatus of contact structure |
US8097475B2 (en) | 2005-06-27 | 2012-01-17 | Advantest Corporation | Method of production of a contact structure |
US8241929B2 (en) | 2005-06-27 | 2012-08-14 | Advantest Corporation | Contactor, contact structure, probe card, and test apparatus |
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US8507908B2 (en) | 2007-07-03 | 2013-08-13 | Advantest Corporation | Probe and probe card |
US20100176829A1 (en) * | 2007-07-03 | 2010-07-15 | Advantest Corporation | Probe and probe card |
US20100176396A1 (en) * | 2007-07-03 | 2010-07-15 | Advantest Corporation | Probe, probe card, and method of production of probe |
US8134379B2 (en) | 2008-03-26 | 2012-03-13 | Advantest Corporation | Probe wafer, probe device, and testing system |
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US8641428B2 (en) | 2011-12-02 | 2014-02-04 | Neoconix, Inc. | Electrical connector and method of making it |
US9000793B2 (en) | 2012-11-15 | 2015-04-07 | Advantest America, Inc. | Fine pitch probes for semiconductor testing, and a method to fabricate and assemble same |
US9194887B2 (en) | 2012-11-15 | 2015-11-24 | Advantest America, Inc. | Fine pitch probes for semiconductor testing, and a method to fabricate and assemble same |
US9680273B2 (en) | 2013-03-15 | 2017-06-13 | Neoconix, Inc | Electrical connector with electrical contacts protected by a layer of compressible material and method of making it |
US11821918B1 (en) | 2020-04-24 | 2023-11-21 | Microfabrica Inc. | Buckling beam probe arrays and methods for making such arrays including forming probes with lateral positions matching guide plate hole positions |
US11828775B1 (en) | 2020-05-13 | 2023-11-28 | Microfabrica Inc. | Vertical probe arrays and improved methods for making using temporary or permanent alignment structures for setting or maintaining probe-to-probe relationships |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
JP3343540B2 (ja) | 2002-11-11 |
DE10003282A1 (de) | 2000-10-19 |
JP2000249722A (ja) | 2000-09-14 |
DE10003282B4 (de) | 2007-05-10 |
US6466043B2 (en) | 2002-10-15 |
TW534998B (en) | 2003-06-01 |
US20020089342A1 (en) | 2002-07-11 |
SG84560A1 (en) | 2001-11-20 |
US6472890B2 (en) | 2002-10-29 |
KR100472580B1 (ko) | 2005-03-07 |
US20020089343A1 (en) | 2002-07-11 |
KR20000053655A (ko) | 2000-08-25 |
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